Backup Medium Selection

[imusorka]

What would be your advice for a laptop user with about 40GB of data to backup? DVD, external HDD and flash drives considered. Inclined to opt for the latter, albeit no clue about a good choice.

 

[corkyg]

The most efficient of the options is a separate HDD. Can be external or internal External is great with USB 3 or eSATA. DVD is slow and cumbersome. Flashgmedia is not as reliable as DVD or HDD. I use flash media in several copies for things like financial data - less than 4 GB. And, another option is a separate computer that can be LAN connected.

 

[hhhd1]

DVDs would be the most reliable, because you will get to keep different versions of everything.

Flash media is the most convenient, because you can easily plug it anytime and keep it in your pocket, but have some reliability issues.

HD are the best when it come to space, a disk could have allot of GBs, but could have minor reliability issues.
HDs could be internal, external or connected to LAN.

 

[imusorka]

Thanks for responding. Is it a bad idea to go for an external HDD as opposed to an internal one in an enclosure? What 1TB external would you suggest? Although rated highly, both Seagate and WD have many negative reviews around the net.

 

[corkyg]

I do not necessarily advocate pre-packaged externals. I would, and do, roll my own with a good external case such as Vantec NexStar having eSATA or USB 3 in addition to USB2. (I have 3 of those. As for size, I use 500GB drives, primarily WDs.

 

[Harvey]

Thanks for responding. Is it a bad idea to go for an external HDD as opposed to an internal one in an enclosure? What 1TB external would you suggest? Although rated highly, both Seagate and WD have many negative reviews around the net.

I've had good luck with both Seagate and WD drives. Most of the negative reports I've seen have been with their "green" drives that attempt to slow or stop the platter rotation when not in use.

I agree with corkyg that it's better to buy a known good model drive and mount it in a separate external case.

The biggest problem with external USB 2 drives for large amounts of data is that the transfer rate is relatively slow compared to a direct connection through the internal SATA or even PATA bus in a desktop. If your laptop supports USB 3 or Firewire you can speed that up somewhat iand buying a drive and enclosure that supports one of those faster formats.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

DVDs would be the most reliable, because you will get to keep different versions of everything.

In theory -- but I personally don't trust writeable optical media over the long term.

My vote is for a pair of USB-powered external drives.

 

[imusorka]

I like the internal-in-an-enclosure suggestion but there are two concerns: heat and size. The former might not be an issue but isn't such an option much bulkier than a common 2.5" external? I'd like to keep on being mobile.

 

[Harvey]

I like the internal-in-an-enclosure suggestion but there are two concerns: heat and size. The former might not be an issue but isn't such an option much bulkier than a common 2.5" external? I'd like to keep on being mobile.

You can buy 2.5" drive and the appropriate enclosure for it.

If you want to back up your entire drive, get a drive that's compatible with your laptop and a copy of Acronis True Image, which is a program that can "clone" your hard drive. That is, it makes an exact, running duplicate of your hard drive. If your main drive fails, the cloned image can directly replace the old drive, or it can be used to reload everything, including your operating files, on a new drive without re-installing the system or your programs. If your hard drive fails or becomes irreparably infected, it WILL save your butt, and it works with Vista and Windows 7.

Seagate and Western Digital offer free versions for use with their drives. In both cases, at least one of the drives in the chain must be from the company offering the program. Seagate owns Maxtor so their version works for both brands.

Acronis True Image for Western Digital drives

Acronis True Image for Seagate and Maxtor drives

 

[tweakboy]

I want to say buy a 128GB SSD but that may not be what your looking for.

My advice is get something that doesn't spin 24/7 A external hard drive is the way to go, and not a cheapo maxtor or seagate,,

Also you can buy a 64GB stick and backup into that.

 

[jobz]

All medium die, sooner or later. If you value your data, make at least 2 backups, one preferably off-site.

To save cost, what you can do is use one hd as primary backup. For more important data like financial data, make 2nd backup to cheaper usb drive. I'd also use dropbox or similar to continuously backup your working files.

 

[imusorka]

This is great. Thanks to everyone for the comments. Can't say it's easier to make a decision now but at least it will be more informed. Another dilemma coming up soon then: a good choice in terms of reliability, performance and cost.

 

[KingFatty]

Another option is to consider whether you use your optical drive now, the DVD?
I find I never use mine, so I'm considering the following:
1) remove DVD drive
2) get a drive-shaped adapter to enclose a hard drive
3) put backup internal hard drive into the drive enclosure
4) insert enclosure into the bay formerly occupied by the DVD drive.

I'll be doing a modification of these steps in that instead of using backup internal hard drive, I'll be putting the existing main hard drive into the enclosure, and using an SSD for the main drive. That way, I can improve the performance of my laptop using the SSD, and backup the SSD onto the old hard drive that will be sitting in the drive bay that the DVD used to occupy.

 

[imusorka]

KingFatty, thanks for the suggestion. I do still burn music for my car sometimes, so the caddy option is not for me just yet. I'm probably going for the external enclosure but cannot decide between WD Scorpio Black and Caviar Black. I like the size and weight of the former but is the performance difference going to be noticeable in weekly use?

 

[philipma1957]

KingFatty, thanks for the suggestion. I do still burn music for my car sometimes, so the caddy option is not for me just yet. I'm probably going for the external enclosure but cannot decide between WD Scorpio Black and Caviar Black. I like the size and weight of the former but is the performance difference going to be noticeable in weekly use?

The 750gb scorpio black is a lot faster then the smaller 500 or 320 gb sizes.

But your data needs the 320gb seems like your best price and


not a problem for the scorpio black a 40gb copy won't tax it.

this

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...&condition=new


two hdds

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...=scorpio+black

two sleeves

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-S...rds=hdd+sleeve


should be good for you